R2sports Screen Shots: Round Robin

Round Robin Tournament Brackets

Round robin tournament brackets are draw formats in which each competitor plays against everyone within their division category in a separate heads-up matches.

Round robin tournament brackets list matches played by round. This by round display is generally used for tournaments, and the round robin schedule is used for leagues and seasons.

Normally teams are seeded in a way where the better skilled competitors match up against the weaker ones in early rounds, and the top teams meet up in the finals.

Some events use a points system to determine the winner of round robin tournament brackets. Winning a game, match, or scoring a point can have a point value assigned to it and the highest point earns are awarded the highest places in the division.

Other events use a “by match win” system. The team winning the most matches earns the higher final placing. In the event a tie occurs, various methods are used to break the tie.

In a round robin tournament bracket, normally when there is a 2-way tie, the winner of the game where the 2 tied competitors played against each other is awarded the higher final standing. When 3 or more are tied within the division, it goes to games won minus games lost. In sports where several games are in a match, winning in a smaller amount of games as opposed to having to go to a tiebreaker awards the player winning quicker the higher standing. When it is till tied, it usually goes by total points scored minus total points scored against.

Round Robin tournament brackets work equally well for tournaments, leagues, and seasons if the number of division competitors fits your available playing time.

Advantages:

Round robin tournament brackets are often thought of as one of the fairest ways to determine a champion in a division since all participants match up against each other.

Players are not knocked out from competition early and get to continue to compete in a tournament environment and gain experience.

A player with a bad performance in a round robin tournament bracket has a shot at making up and still being becoming the champion.

Disadvantages:

When more than 5 participants are in the same division, it requires a lot more games to be played when compared to single elimination brackets. With 6 or more competitors, the group pool play bracket are the preferred draw format.

There are also some scenarios where losing teams lose incentive to continue playing hard when they have multiple losses in early rounds.